The latest episode of VFiles’s satirical web series “Model Files,” which explores male models’ journeys to find “real jobs,” is set at a fictitious Old Navy shoot where downtown personalities are subject to makeunders — that just happen to involve the most normcore of attire. In the episode, an “Old Navy representative” explains the appeal of the trend thusly: “There’s something so beautiful about being homogenous. Community. Togetherness. Sameness.” He hands one model a baseball-tee-and-dad-jeans combo, saying, “I think this would be really amazing; it’s really middle America.” Model Soo Joo Park calls her velour-centric look “loungecore.”
The show’s host, casting director Preston Chaunsumlit, submits to an interview with the original article’s author, Fiona Duncan. He’s clad in an Under Armour shirt (brocore?) and his signature white nurse’s clogs. “I don’t know what it means, but New York Magazine said I was a normcore icon,” he says. “I think I’m the only person here comfortable being basic in my basics.” Meanwhile, face-tatted hipsters pose in front of a bright-yellow seamless background as the photographer shouts prompts like “You’re a camp counselor. The sun is shining. Your life is perfect.” And: “You have two kids. You live in Carroll Gardens. Just … feel that. Be that bitch.”